Methods and systems for an e-commerce promotions platform

ABSTRACT

Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, such as sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS/INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

The present application makes reference to, claims benefit of, and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/842,353, filed Jul. 2, 2013, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the invention relate to e-commerce platforms and e-commerce platform implementation tools. More specifically, certain embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems for an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, such as sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Administration tools for development of e-commerce related contests and promotions may be cumbersome and inefficient.

Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system and/or method for an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

Various advantages, aspects and novel features of the present invention, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, will be more fully understood from the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-1D illustrate a flow diagram of an example method for operating an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, in accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a high-level block diagram of an example system for an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, in accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates the functional organization and data flow involved in the processing of a sponsor request to provide a promotion to consumers via an e-commerce promotion platform, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a screen image of an example user interface for “logging in” to an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, in accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 shows a screen image of an example user interface for creating a new user login for an administration tool for administering promotions such as premium-based and/or point-based e-commerce promotions, in accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a screen image showing an example confirmation window that may be displayed upon submission of registration information by an individual requesting a user account for the administration tool of an e-commerce promotions platform, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 shows a screen image representing the “inbox” of an email client of the user, showing an entry for an email received from an administration tool of an e-commerce promotions platform in response to submission of registration information, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a screen image showing the contents of an example email received from an administration tool of an e-commerce promotions platform that may, for example, correspond to the email of entry of FIG. 7, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 shows a screen image illustrating an example message confirming successful registration of an individual for access to an administration tool of an e-commerce promotions platform, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of a screen image showing a user login attempt to gain access to an administration tool of an e-commerce promotions platform by the individual following successful completion of the user registration of FIG. 8, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 shows a screen image illustrating an exemplary promotion screen for a sweepstakes having a premium prize, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 illustrates a screen image of an exemplary pop-up window that may be used to provide additional detail about a prize for a promotion, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 shows a screen image that illustrates an example campaign information form that may be used to submit sponsor choices and information for a promotion to be run with participants from the users of an e-commerce platform, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 14 is an illustration of a screen image that illustrates an additional example campaign information form, which may be used to submit sponsor choices and information for a promotion involving a premium prize, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 15 is a screen image that illustrates an example email that may be sent to a user of an e-commerce platform upon their qualification for entry as a participant in a sweepstakes promotion, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 16 is an illustration of a screen image that illustrates an additional example campaign information form that may be used to submit sponsor choices and information for a “giveaway,” in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 17 illustrates a screen image of an exemplary campaign details form that may be used to provide additional sponsor choices related to the timeline and entry requirements for the promotion, and to upload images to be used in visuals for a promotion, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 18 shows example guidelines for the minimum number of entrants and the duration of a promotion, based on the type of prize and the approximate retail value of the prize for a promotion, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example date selection pop-up that may be used to select dates for those fields discussed herein for which a date is required, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 20 is an illustration of a screen image of a portion of an example campaign details form that may be used to provide details related to the use of a multiple choice question, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 21 is an illustration of a screen image of an additional portion of an example campaign details form that may be used to provide specific options related to eligibility of individuals to be promotion entrants, and business information, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 22 shows an illustration of a campaign review report showing the choices and data entries made by the sponsor of a sweepstakes promotion for the various options discussed above with regard to FIGS. 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, and 21, using an administration tool for an e-commerce promotion platform, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 23 is an illustration of exemplary computer network in which a representative embodiment of the present disclosure may be practiced.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the invention relate to e-commerce platforms and e-commerce platform implementation tools. More specifically, certain embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems for an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, such as sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins.

In accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure, an administration tool (herein referred to as an “Awesome Tool”, an “Administration Tool”, an “AT,” or a “campaign management tool”) may be provided for administering e-commerce promotions, such as sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins. The Administration Tool may provide a novel production flow enabling the automation of sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins with complex social interaction and the associated legal rules development for these promotions.

The terms “user,” “end-user,” “customer,” and “consumer” may be used herein to refer to a potential or existing purchaser of products and/or services of a business or merchant.

The term “e-commerce” may be used herein to refer to business or commerce that is transacted electronically, as over the Internet. The term “social e-commerce” may be used herein to refer to e-commerce in which consumers interact with other consumers socially as part of e-commerce activities. Merchants or businesses may take part in social e-commerce by engaging consumers in various activities including, by way of example and not limitation, email messaging, text messaging, games, and posting or monitoring of activities and information exchanged on social networking platforms (e.g., Facebook®) and/or merchant supported social networks.

The term “social network” may be used herein to refer to a network of family, friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts, or to an online community of such individuals who use a website or other technologies to communicate with each other, share information, resources, etc. The term “social graph” may be used herein to refer to a representation of the personal relationships or connections between individuals in a population. The term “social signal” may be used herein to refer to an expression by a user of a relationship with or feeling about a person, product, or thing. In the context of the present disclosure, the terms “social signal” and “social signal information” refer to a relationship with or feeling about a product.

The terms “like,” “want,” “have” or “own,” and “recommend” may be used to refer to particular social signals that may be represented on a web page in association with a product, and may be selected by a consumer to represent their relationship with or feeling about the product.

The term “channel” in the present context may refer to various means of communicating such as, for example, online communication (e.g., Internet-based), mobile communication (e.g., wireless communication such as cellular or Wi-Fi), and in-store communication.

The terms “merchant” and “sponsoring merchant/merchants” may be used herein to refer to the owner and/or operator of a business enterprise that either operates a e-commerce promotions platform system as described herein, or enters into an agreement with another to operate such an e-commerce promotions platform on their behalf.

The term “loyalty program” may be used herein to refer to a structured marketing effort that rewards, and therefore encourages, loyal buying behavior that is potentially beneficial to the business or firm operating or sponsoring the loyalty program. The term “member” may be used herein to refer to those consumers that have provided personal information to an operator or sponsor of a loyalty program in order to gain access to benefits provided by the loyalty program.

The term “follow” may be used herein to refer to a user request to be kept informed about a particular person, place, or thing.

The term “share” may be used herein to refer to a user request to communicate information about what is being viewed by a user to members of the user's family, friends, or social network.

The term “campaign” may be used herein to refer to an action, or a series of actions taken to accomplish a particular purpose or goal. In the context of the present disclosure, the term “campaign” may be used herein to more specifically refer to the one or more actions taken to put into place, engage consumer participants in, and operate one or more of a contest, a sweepstake, a giveaway, or an instant win.

As utilized herein, the terms “exemplary” or “example” means serving as a non-limiting example, instance, or illustration. As utilized herein, the term “e.g.” introduces a list of one or more non-limiting examples, instances, or illustrations.

Some representative embodiments of the present disclosure may have an integrated social media functionality that allows consumers to communicate product, service, manufacturing, sales, and other information with others, and to search for products of interest, poll friends, family, and others, recommend products and receive product recommendations, and plan for and participate in events in their lives and the lives of others.

A representative embodiment of the present disclosure may be used to promote consumer activity at both online and traditional “brick-and-mortar” stores, and may result in rewards usable through both channels.

Social interactions that provide behavior details may be essential to sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins. In accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure, the AT may provide a selection of a plurality of interactions in any combination, thereby enabling a novel production flow and user experience. In this regard, the AT may automate the development process for complex interactions by, e.g., providing analytics as well as a streamlined production path to reduce cost and errors associated with production and deployment of sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins. In accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure, the AT may be implemented as a web based solution that streamlines the production path, approval process, and moves to publishing sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins directly from within the AT.

In accordance with yet another example embodiment of the disclosure, the AT may automate the creation process of sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins by implementing one or more functionalities. For example, the AT may perform auto generation of legal rules in the AT and allowing for savings of up to 6 hours each day across multiple resources on a business operations team. In addition, the AT may produce copy for social interactions may be auto-generated to reduce human error and sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins set-up issues. This may prevent instances where business, legal, and engineering teams are spending time to figure out the best way to update a wrong copy of information on a live sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins promotion. The AT may also produce “help” text for each social interaction may be auto generated, which may eliminate the need to copy/paste and hence saving time while reducing the margin for error. The AT may include functionality to clone a sweepstakes, a contest, a giveaway, and/or an instant wins promotion for a later re-launch. More specifically, with a few clicks, the AT may enable a previously run promotion to be reused. In addition, the AT may support recurring launches of sweepstakes, contests, instant wins and giveaways. Based on a launch cadence, a promotion may, for example, be set up to launch each day, or consecutively for a number of days, without intervention. In this regard, the need to clone a promotion from a previous day and launch it again with date changes for the next n days (e.g. for a promotion lifetime) may be eliminated. In some instances, “display logic” capability may also be added to this AT functionality.

In accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure, the AT may integrate social interactions with sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins promotions, and lower the cost of development from that of conventional techniques. The AT may be externalized and provide a friendly, web-based user interface and easy method for anyone wishing to act as a sponsor to create a promotion. The AT may take a limited amount of time (e.g., just a few minutes) to fill out screen of information of a web-based interface, and may provide a flow of screens that allow for approval and publishing to, e.g., a live promotions application. Additional functionalities and screenshots associated with the AT are disclosed herein in reference to the accompanying figures.

A representative embodiment of the present disclosure may compare information about promotion participants against one or more conditions, and may issue notifications to the participants regarding their completion of tax related forms (e.g., U.S. Internal Revenue Service Form W-9, or other government reporting forms, or requirements) to enable their participation in a promotion.

A representative embodiment of the present disclosure may incorporate logic to manage the flow/ordering of actions to be performed by various organizations (e.g., operations, creative, legal, marketing, and analytics) in the setup of a promotional activity (e.g., a contest, sweepstakes), to insure that the involvement of any particular organization is not requested until all requirements (e.g., conditions, information developed/available, documents prepared, work completed) needed by that organization have been met and all management approvals secured.

A representative embodiment of the present invention may provide an interface to systems separate from and external to the promotion platform, to permit those external systems to employ the functionality of the promotions platform.

FIGS. 1A-1D illustrate a flow diagram of an example method for operating an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, in accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure. The actions illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1D may be performed, at least in part by, for example, the elements of a computer network system such as the computer network illustrated in FIG. 23. In a representative embodiment of the present disclosure, the e-commerce promotions platform may use a set of business rules of the operator of the platform, to enforce a particular flow of information and accountability. The is done to ensure that the resources needed to create, produce, review, and approve the various elements that make the form of promotion chosen by the sponsor available online are employed only when all prior steps for approval at a particular point in the flow have, in fact, been completed and approved, before resources to perform later steps in the flow are engaged in the production flow. This allows an embodiment of the present disclosure to automatically prepare and track much of the information for a promotion, from the online submission by the sponsor of text and image information, to the production of materials for online delivery to participants, the scheduling and tracking of the promotion itself, and delivery of any awards or prizes to selected participants. This novel set of automatic processing and controls enables the e-commerce promotion platform of the present disclosure to support the definition, production, and online presentation of a larger number of simultaneous promotion activities, at a lower per-promotion cost, than would be practical by currently known mechanisms.

The method of FIGS. 1A-1D begins at block 102, where an individual or organization wishing to sponsor one or more promotional activities (e.g., contexts, sweepstakes, giveaways, and/or instant wins) arrives at the initial screen or “landing page” of an e-commerce promotions platform of the present disclosure. The initial or landing screen may be accessible via a communications network such as the Internet, and the device used to access the landing page for the e-commerce promotions platform may be any of the processing devices 20, 20′, 20″ discussed in greater detail below with respect to FIG. 23. Next, the method may determine whether the sponsor has an account on the e-commerce promotions platform, and based upon that determination may, at block 106, request that the sponsor sign in or, at block 108, request that the sponsor create a new account, including the submission of various information about the identity, location, financial background, and contact information for the sponsor. Next, at block 110, the system performing the method of FIG. 1A may display a menu for the e-commerce promotions platform, and the sponsor may, at block 112, choose the type of promotion that they wish to run (e.g., a context, a sweepstakes, a giveaway, or an instant win). Then, at block 114, the sponsor may engage in completion of one or more screens/pages, to submit various options and details for a promotion that they have chosen to run, as described below in greater detail with respect to FIGS. 13-22. Such information may include, by way of example and not limitation, textual information or “copy” and suitable images, to be displayed to participants in the promotion activity.

Next, at block 116 of FIG. 1B, the system performing the method may determine whether the submitted information for the promotion is valid. The validity of the various parameters submitted by the sponsor and used to define and run the chosen promotion may be determined from various business rules and/or legal requirements that have been identified by the system for, based upon, by way of example and not limitation, the type of promotion (e.g., contest, sweepstakes, giveaway or instant win), the country(s), state(s), city/cities, and/or locality/localities in which the promotion is to run, the nature of the prize(s), and a number of other factors. If, at block 116, it is determined that any of the submitted information for the promotion is not valid, the system may, at block 118, transmit a request to the sponsor modify the information submitted for the promotion, to bring the promotion into compliance with the business rules and/or legal requirements of the operator of the e-commerce promotions platform of the present disclosure. The method of FIG. 1B may then return control to block 114 of FIG. 1A.

If it is determined, at block 116, that the submitted information for the promotion is valid, the system may, at block 120, communicate the sponsor-submitted text and graphics information, or send notification of the availability and the whereabouts of such information, to a creative arts team, to enable them to perform a review of the sponsor submissions. The creative arts team may then update the text and graphics information to meet whatever requirements the operator of the e-commerce promotion platform may have for the promotion. The system may then, at block 122, receive notification of the availability and the whereabouts of the reviewed (and possibly updated) text and graphics information from the creative arts team. The method of FIG. 1B may then direct the system, at block 124, to transmit the information submitted by the sponsor, including the text and graphics information reviewed and possibly updated by the creative arts team, to a legal review team, to perform a review of that information, before any work is performed in putting the promotion up on the e-commerce promotions platform. A determination is then made, at block 126, as to whether the various items of information (e.g., text and graphics from the sponsor, legal information (by way of illustration and not limitation, eligibility information, terms and conditions to be agreed to by participants, description of prizes to be awarded) to be made available to the participants on the screens/pages distributed by the system are acceptable to the operator of the e-commerce promotion platform. If it is determined that the various items of information are not acceptable, the method of FIG. 1B directs the system to continue at block 120, described above.

If, however, it is determined that the various items of information to be made available to the participants on the screens/pages distributed by the system are acceptable to the operator of the e-commerce promotion platform, the method of FIG. 1B continues at block 128, at which the reviewed and approved text, image, and other promotion-related information for the sponsor-chosen promotion are made available to the sponsor for their review. The method of FIG. 1B then moves to block 130 of FIG. 1C.

At block 130 of FIG. 1C, the method directs the system to communicate the various items of information for the sponsor chosen promotion described above, to a marketing team. As illustrated in the example of FIG. 1C, a determination is then made as to whether the operator-reviewed and approved text, image, and other promotion-related information for the sponsor-chosen promotion is acceptable to the sponsor of the promotion. If it is determined that the sponsor does not approve of the operator-reviewed and approved text, image, and other promotion-related information, the method continues at block 120 of FIG. 1B. If, however, the operator-reviewed and approved information for the promotion is acceptable to the sponsor, the promotion-related information is communicated, or information identifying the whereabouts of such information is communicated to a planning and product team of the operator of the e-commerce promotion platform, where a final review is performed. If the promotion-related information is not acceptable to the planning and product team, the method returns to block 120, described above. However, if the promotion-related information is acceptable to the planning and product team, the promotion-related information is transmitted to an analytics group. The method of FIG. 1C then continues to block 140, where online operation with participants is enabled, according to the type of promotion chosen by the sponsor (e.g., a context, a sweepstakes, a giveaway, or an instant win), and the various options and details chosen by the sponsor. These may include, for example, the textual information or “copy” and images submitted by the sponsor, any modification made by the e-commerce platform operator, and other information including automatically generated legal information and notices (e.g., eligibility information, terms and conditions to be agreed to by participants, description of prizes to be awarded) to be displayed to participants in the promotion activity.

FIG. 2 is a high-level block diagram of an example system for an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, in accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure. The illustration of FIG. 2 includes an Admin Tool 210 that may correspond to, for example, the AT of the present disclosure, and a Prizing Engine 220 that may manage content for the various promotions (e.g., contests, sweepstakes, giveaways, and instant wins) that may run on the e-commerce promotions platform (e.g., the host system 68 of FIG. 23), and may manage the activities involved in the setup of the various promotions.

In a representative embodiment of the present disclosure, the administration tool or “AT” may acts as a front end for the applications that involve interactions with businesses external to the operator of the e-commerce promotion platform. The forms that may be displayed online by the AT to sponsors of promotions may be customized for the specific promotion, and all data collected from the business sponsoring the promotion may be stored in a backend database for the AT. Examples of such data include, by way of example, and not limitation, any requests from the sponsor, any charges or chargebacks of the sponsor, and a record of approvals or “audit trail” of the various information flows described above. As discussed above, information related to a promotion may be transferred to the next recipient in the promotion production flow (e.g., a review team or respective software application) only after all required approvals have been confirmed. In addition, reporting (e.g, aggregated or high-level) associated with a specific request (e.g., sweepstake, eCoupon, campaign etc.) may be handled by the AT. In a representative embodiment of the present invention, high-level, aggregated data may be sent to the Admin Tool 210 of FIG. 2 at the end of the day, to show to the sponsors of promotions the promotion-related data that the sponsor created. Once information related to a promotion is collected by the AT and all the required approvals have been verified, the information may then be transferred to the Prizing Engine 220.

The Prizing Engine 220 may, for example, communicate promotion rules and the variables to be tracked to a promotion application for the promotion chosen by the sponsor (e.g., a contests, sweepstakes, giveaway, or an instant win). Additional information about an example contest and sweepstakes promotion and the method and systems involved in operating such promotions, and an example “Prizing Engine” may be found, for example, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/956,978 entitled “Contests and Sweepstakes,” filed Aug. 1, 2013, the subject matter of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, in its entirety.

In addition, FIG. 2 illustrates functionality supporting E-Coupons 230, and Other Applications 240. The functionality of E-Coupons 230 may provide electronic coupons or “e-coupons” to participants in the sponsored promotion. The E-Coupons functionality 230 of FIG. 2 may include the generation of e-coupons, as needed or in advance, for distribution by the e-commerce promotion platform of the present disclosure. Such functionality may track and report both information about the generation (e.g., a unique coupon code, when the coupon was generated, any expiration information), information about categories of products/services for which generated e-coupon is valid, and the value of the generated e-coupon (e.g., in a currency, or in “points” redeemable during purchase of an applicable product or service).

FIG. 3 illustrates the functional organization and data flow involved in the processing of a sponsor request to provide a promotion to consumers via an e-commerce promotion platform, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. As described above with regard to FIGS. 1A-1D and FIG. 2, the sponsor of the promotion may make a request for the running of a promotion using an online interface of an “Admin Tool,” that may correspond to the Admin Tool 210 of FIG. 2. The Admin Tool of FIG. 3 may then verify that all necessary information is provided by the sponsor, and confirm that the various approvals of the information related to the sponsor promotion, as indicated by the business rules of the operator of the e-commerce promotion platform and the functional units of the operator of the e-commerce promotion platform, are in place. The Admin Tool may then transmit the data related to the promotion to a “Prizing Engine” that may correspond to, for example, the Prizing Engine 220 of FIG. 2. In the example of FIG. 3, the Prizing Engine then processes the data for the sponsor promotion, for deployment and access by consumers. Performance information related to actions by the consumers of FIG. 3 such as, for example, their completion of various tasks (e.g., the creation of a catalog, the “liking” a particular product, the sharing of information with member of a social network) that may be required by a sponsor's promotion, may then be received by the Prizing Engine from the e-commerce platform serving the consumer(s), and may be transmitted by the Prizing Engine to the Admin Tool. The Admin Tool may then generate reports from the performance related information sent to it by the Prizing Engine, which may then be delivered to the sponsor of the promotion.

FIG. 4 illustrates a screen image 400 of an example user interface for “logging in” to an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, in accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure. The “log in” user interface includes a “Username” text field 402, for entry of the name of the sponsor or sponsor's representative that will access the e-commerce promotion platform, and a “Password” text field 404, for entry of a corresponding user password to be used when logging in with the name entered in the “Username” text field 402. The user may then click-on/select the “Sign In” button 406, to request access to the e-commerce promotion platform. If, however, the individual attempting login does not have a registered login name and password, the user may choose to click-on/select the “Register” user interface element 408, to enable them to create a new user login, as discussed below with regard to FIG. 5. A “Reset” button may be used to clear the text fields 402, 404. The user name and password information gathered is then stored by the system, for use in validating future access attempts.

FIG. 5 shows a screen image 500 of an example user interface for creating a new user login for an administration tool for administering promotions such as premium-based and/or point-based e-commerce promotions, in accordance with an example embodiment of the disclosure. The user interface of FIG. 5 includes a text field 502 for use in entering the name of the user, a text field 504 for entering a name used to identify a “business unit” of the sponsor, a text field 506 for entering an email address of the user, and two text fields 508A, 508B that, respectively, enable the user to create their own password, and to enter that password a second time for confirmation. The user may cancel the attempt to create a user account by clicking-on/selecting a “Cancel” button 510, and may submit the information shown in the text fields 502, 504, 506, 508A, 508B for creation of the user account by clicking-on/selecting a “Register button” 512.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a screen image 600 showing an example confirmation window that may be displayed upon submission of registration information by an individual requesting a user account for the administration tool of an e-commerce promotions platform, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. As stated in the screen image 600 of FIG. 6, a confirmation email may be sent to the email address entered by the user in the screen image 500 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 shows a screen image 700 representing the “inbox” of an email client of the user, showing an entry 702 for an email received from an administration tool of an e-commerce promotions platform in response to submission of registration information, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a screen image 800 showing the contents of an example email 802 received from an administration tool of an e-commerce promotions platform that may, for example, correspond to the email of entry 702 of FIG. 7, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in the illustration of FIG. 8, the example email 802 provides instructions on how to confirm their email address and complete their registration, to the individual that submitted the user information and the email address used to send the email 802 for a new user account.

FIG. 9 shows a screen image 900 illustrating an example message confirming successful registration of an individual for access to an administration tool of an e-commerce promotions platform, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of a screen image 1000 showing a user login attempt to gain access to an administration tool of an e-commerce promotions platform by the individual following successful completion of the user registration of FIG. 8, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 shows a screen image 1100 illustrating an exemplary promotion screen for a sweepstakes having a premium prize, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. The example of FIG. 11 may, for example, be an image of a web page served by an e-commerce platform such as the e-commerce platform of FIG. 3, which may run on a system such as the host system 68 of FIG. 23, described below. FIG. 11 includes an image 1102 of the premium prize for the sweepstakes promotion, in this case a guitar from a member of a well-known musical group. The screen image 1100 also includes the title 1104 of the promotion, and a prize name 1106 that provides a brief textual description of the prize. Also present in the example of FIG. 11 is a text string 1108 that indicates the number of days remaining in the promotion, and a prize information link 1118 that may be selected/clicked-on by the user to display a pop-up window containing additional information about the prize for the indicated promotion that is briefly identified by the prize identifier 1106. An example of such a pop-up window is shown in FIG. 12, discussed below.

In addition to the above, the example of FIG. 11 includes qualifying information 1110, which provides information identifying the steps a user must take to be given an entry to the sweepstakes promotion, and optional entry information 1112 that describes the additional step(s) that are required to gain one or more additional entries to the sweepstakes promotion. Selection of the Rules and regulations information link 1116 results in the display of information that explains the “official rules” of the sweepstakes promotion and the “privacy policy” that may be in effect for the sweepstakes promotion example illustrated in FIG. 11. The example of FIG. 11 also includes a threshold number 1120 that indicates the minimum number of applicants required to activate the sweepstakes promotion of the example. Finally, a “Get Started Now” button 1114 is illustrated, which may be selected/clicked-on by the user, to begin the process of applying for entry in the sweepstakes promotion.

FIG. 12 illustrates a screen image 1200 of an exemplary pop-up window that may be used to provide additional detail about a prize for a promotion, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. The illustration of FIG. 12 shows a prize name 1202 that corresponds, in this example, to the prize name 1106 for the premium prize identified in FIG. 11. In addition, the pop-up window of FIG. 12 includes a detailed prize description 1204, which more completely describes the premium prize, its value, any enhancements, and the conditions that apply for the winner of the sweepstakes promotion example of FIGS. 11 and 12. The viewer of screen image 1200 may close the example pop-up window of FIG. 12 by selecting the “X” in the upper-right-hand corner, which may return the viewer to the screen image 1100 of FIG. 11.

FIG. 13 shows a screen image 1300 that illustrates an example campaign information form that may be used to submit sponsor choices and information for a promotion to be run with participants from the users of an e-commerce platform, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. The illustration of FIG. 13 may be displayed when a user of an administrative tool in accordance with the present disclosure chooses to request that a promotion activity be run on an e-commerce promotion platform, such as that described herein, which may be supported by a system such as the host system 68 of FIG. 23. The illustration of FIG. 13 includes a Campaign Type selection 1302 that, in the example of FIG. 13, permits the selection of a promotion as a “contest,” or a “sweepstakes,” and a Campaign Name field 1304 (not yet filled in), which permits the entry of a textual identifier that may be used, for example, to identify the sweepstakes promotion to users of an e-commerce platform such as, for example, that illustrated in FIG. 3 in, for example, printed, broadcast, or online media. The example of FIG. 13 also includes a prize detail section 1306, comprising a prize type drop-down list 1308 and a prize value subsection that, as shown in the example of FIG. 13, permits the user to choose to award a prize in the form of “points” of, for example, a loyalty program of a merchant, or in the form of a “premium prize,” as shown in the example of FIG. 14, to be discussed below. In the example of FIG. 13, the user has elected to award a “points” prize, but has not yet entered the number of “points” in the prize value field 1310.

With further reference to the illustration of FIG. 13, the example of FIG. 13 also includes a Number of Prizes field 1312 that permits the user to select the number of prizes to be awarded by the promotion (i.e., the “sweepstakes”), shown in the example of FIG. 13 as “1.” The example of FIG. 13 shows at user interface element 1314 that the user has chosen not to include a “giveaway” as part of the promotion. Such a “giveaway” may, for example, be an “e-coupon.” Further, in the example of FIG. 13, the user may choose to cancel the entries made in the campaign information window by selecting/clicking-on the “Cancel” button 1316, and may choose to save the entries made in the fields described above, for example when unable to complete the process of creating a promotion, by clicking-on/selecting the “Save” button 1318. The user may move on to a next page/screen of entering campaign information, by clicking-on/selecting a “Next Step” button 1320.

FIG. 14 is an illustration of a screen image 1400 that shows an additional example campaign information form, which may be used to submit sponsor choices and information for a promotion involving a premium prize, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. The illustration of FIG. 14 shows a prize type drop-down list 1408 that may, for example, correspond to an alternate choice of a “premium prize” type, in the selections available in the prize type drop-down list 1308 of FIG. 13. As shown in the example of FIG. 14, user selection of the premium prize choice in the prize type drop-down list 1408 causes the display of a prize name 1409 that may, for example, correspond to the prize name shown in the prize name field 1202 of FIG. 12. The example of FIG. 14 also includes a Number of Prizes field 1412, which may correspond to the Number of Prizes field 1312 of FIG. 13. The information entered in the “Additional Enhancers” field 1422 may be used to describe a detail that may be of particular interest to the participants and that the sponsor would like to note such as, for example, that the premium prize item was once owned by, or has been autographed by, a particular person related to the premium prize, such as is the case in the example of FIG. 12.

The example of FIG. 14 also includes an Approximate Retail Value (ARV) field 1424, in which the user enters a monetary value that fairly represents the retail value of a premium prize item. The user may choose an appropriate one of the radio buttons 1426 to indicate whether awarding of the prize is mandatory. For example, an affirmative indication may cause a change in the process used to select the winner of the prize, so that a second winner may be chosen if the first selected winner does not come forward or is disqualified. The user may enter a detailed description of the premium prize for the promotion in the Prize Description field 1428, which may be shown to the user via, for example, a display mechanism such as the pop-up window of FIG. 12. The user may enter text in a Prize Rules field 1430, which may then be displayed to the prospective participants upon selection of, for example, a Rules and Regulation information link such as that which appears as Rules and Regulations link 1116 in FIG. 11. The example of FIG. 14, in a manner similar to the example of FIG. 13, shows a user interface element 1414 that indicates that the user has chosen not to include a “giveaway,” and a “Cancel” button 1416, a “Save” button 1418, and a “Next Step” button 1420 that function in a similar fashion to the user interface element 1314, “Cancel” button 1316, “Save” button 1318, and “Next Step” button 1320 of FIG. 13.

FIG. 15 shows a screen image 1500 that illustrates an example email that may be sent to a user of an e-commerce platform upon their qualification for entry as a participant in a sweepstakes promotion, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. The user of an administration tool such as that described above may submit an email template as part of the text and image information used for the creation of a promotion, and a copy of that template may be automatically populated with details for each loyalty program member that qualifies for entry in the related promotion. The example email of FIG. 15 provides information for the participant to track the promotion activities in which they are participating.

FIG. 16 is an illustration of a screen image 1600 that illustrates an additional example campaign information form that may be used to submit sponsor choices and information for a “giveaway,” in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. In the examples discussed above with respect to FIGS. 13 and 14, the user interface elements 1314, 1414 that related to the use of a “giveaway” (e.g., an e-coupon) were shown to be set to not use a “giveaway.” The illustration of FIG. 16, however, shows additional user interface elements related to sponsor choices for a situation in which the sponsor has elected to use a “giveaway” as part of their promotion. For example, in the illustration of FIG. 16, the user interface element is set to indicate that a “giveaway” is to be included as part of the promotion. A Giveaway Name field 1632 is provided to permit the user of the administration tool to identify the name of the “giveaway” to be included in the promotion. An “Unlimited” checkbox 1634, allows the user to indicate whether the number of “giveaways” to be distributed to participants in the promotion is unlimited. A text box that enables entry of a particular number of “giveaways” may appear on the form shown in FIG. 16, if the “Unlimited” box 1634 is not checked. In a representative embodiment of the present disclosure, a “Giveaway Code” field 1636 permits an alphanumeric code to be assigned to the “giveaway.” Such a code may be published via various means (e.g., direct mail, email, print advertisements, and broadcast media) and its submission may be required to permit a consumer to redeem the “giveaway.” The “Brief Description of Giveaway” field 1638 of FIG. 16 permits the user that is creating the promotion to provide a concise description of the “giveaway,” which may be included in various promotion-related information emailed to prospective participants and displayed on web pages. A “Business Unit Name” field 1640 may also be included, to allow the user to identify the business unit associated with the promotion. Finally, the “Cancel,” “Save,” and “Next Step,” buttons 1616, 1618, 1620 of FIG. 16 may function in the same manner as the similarly named buttons shown in the illustrations of FIGS. 13 and 14.

FIG. 17 illustrates a screen image 1700 of an exemplary campaign details form that may be used to provide additional sponsor choices related to the timeline and entry requirements for the promotion, and to upload images to be used in visuals for a promotion, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. As the example of FIG. 17 shows, the user may specify a promotion Launch Date 1744, a promotion End Date 1746, and a Reward Draw Date 1748, to set the start of a promotion, the end of the promotion, and the date on which the reward draw begins, respectively. The values entered in Launch Date field 1744 and the End Date field 1746 may be used by an administration tool, such as is described herein, to automatically schedule advertisements, emails, print publications, and broadcast media distribution of information about the promotion created for the sponsor. Although not shown in FIG. 17, additional fields related to, for example, the number, the spacing, and the duration of occurrences of one or more promotions (e.g., a promotion having a particular prize, or a series of promotions having prizes chosen from a particular category of products and/or having a particular approximate retail value (ARV)) may be provided. Such input options and e-commerce promotion platform functionality may permit the sponsor to create a promotion that repeats, by way of example and not limitation, every three weeks, every quarter, or at six month intervals, where each of the promotions have the same prize, or each have a different prize automatically chosen from the same product category, or each have a prize chosen from randomly-selected product categories and a particular ARV.

The example illustrated in FIG. 17 also includes a Representative Images section 1750, that may enable the user to upload images to be used as part of the promotion. For example, the images that appear in FIG. 11 and FIG. 15 may be provided by the sponsor of the promotion and uploaded to an e-commerce promotion platform via an administration tool in accordance with the present disclosure.

An Entry Requirements section 1752 of FIG. 17 may includes an Entry Platform user interface element 1754, to enable the user to select the platform on which the promotion will be supported (e.g., a web application). The illustration of FIG. 7 also includes a Minimum Number of Entrants field 1756 that permits the user to set a threshold number of qualifying participants required to activate the promotion, and Maximum Entries Allowed per Person per Day field 1758 and Maximum Entries Allowed per Person per Campaign field 1760, to place limits on the number of entries that a given individual is allowed to have. A respective checkbox may be provided to enable the user to indicate that no limits should be imposed on the respective two parameters. The sponsor may permit an alternate, non-web-based form of entry for a promotion by selecting a “Yes” radio button 1762, and may allow additional social entries to a promotion by choosing an “Enable” option of a drop-down list 1764. A user interface element 1766 is provided to permit the user of the administration tool to choose to award credits to members of a loyalty program of the sponsor or their partners, and a user interface element 1768 is included, to permit the user to enable the award of “Bonus Credits” for completion of the promotion qualifying requirements discussed previously. In addition, the user creating the promotion may choose to require the use of a multiple choice question (MCQ) by selecting a “Yes” radio button 1770. Finally, the “Cancel,” “Save,” and “Next Step,” buttons 1716, 1718, 1720 of FIG. 17 may function in the same manner as the similarly named buttons shown in the illustrations of FIGS. 13, 14, and 16, while a “Back” button 1742 may be used to move to the previous portion of the campaign details form.

FIG. 18 shows example guidelines for the minimum number of entrants and the duration of a promotion, based on the type of prize and the approximate retail value of the prize for a promotion, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. The type of prize may be set by the user of an administration tool of the present disclosure using, for example, a user interface element such as the prize type drop-down lists 1308, 1408 shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, respectively. The approximate retail value of a prize for a promotion may be set by the user via the Prize Value field 1310 and Approximate Retail Value field 1424 of FIGS. 13 and 14, respectively. The Minimum Number of Entrants field 1756 of FIG. 17 may be used by the sponsor to set the minimum number of entrants required to activate a promotion.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example date selection pop-up that may be used to select dates for those fields discussed herein, for which a date is required, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. Examples of such fields include the promotion Launch Date 1744, the promotion End Date 1746, and the Reward Draw Date 1748 fields of FIG. 17.

FIG. 20 is an illustration of a screen image 2000 of a portion of an example campaign details form that may be used to provide details related to the use of a multiple choice question, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. The sponsor may choose to include a multiple choice question (MCQ) in the actions to be completed to qualify for entry in a promotion, by selecting the “Yes” radio button 2070 of FIG. 20. The Required Question field 2072 of FIG. 20 may be used to enter the text of the required multiple choice question, and the possible answer choices to the multiple choice question may be submitted using Choice fields 2076A, 2076B, 2076C, 2076D, 2076E of FIG. 20. The “Back,” “Cancel,” “Save,” and “Next Step,” buttons 2042, 2016, 2018, 2020 of FIG. 20 may function in the same manner as the similarly named buttons shown in the illustrations of FIGS. 13, 14, 16, and 17.

FIG. 21 is an illustration of a screen image 2100 of an additional portion of an example campaign details form that may be used to provide specific options related to eligibility of individuals to be promotion entrants, and business information, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present disclosure. The illustration of FIG. 21 includes an eligibility section 2178 via which the sponsor may select a “From age” and a “To age” that define a range of ages 2180 within which an individual may be eligible to participate as an entrant in a promotion. The illustration of FIG. 21 also includes an “Eligible Parties” check box 2182, which permits the sponsor to indicate that employees of the sponsor are eligible to participate in the promotion. An eligible affinity may be indicated by selecting the applicable code for the entity in the “Eligible Affinities” list 2184, and the sponsor may indicate whether individuals from all possible geographic regions (e.g., all of the sates in the U.S.) are eligible to participate in the promotion. The sponsor may also choose to restrict rewards to only those of a particular loyalty program level or status, or to include any member of the loyalty program of the sponsor or merchant, using the radio buttons 2188. The illustration of FIG. 21 also includes a Business Information section 2190, which permits entry of business unit and prize sponsor information.

FIG. 22 shows an illustration of a campaign review report showing the choices and data entries made by the sponsor of a sweepstakes promotion for the various options discussed above with regard to FIGS. 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, and 21, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention. The campaign review report of FIG. 22 may be generated by the administration tool based upon the information submitted by the sponsor for the creation of a promotion. The campaign review report may be shared with the sponsor by the operator of the e-commerce promotion platform, to insure that all information for the promotion is verified as correct and acceptable, before allowing the promotion to go live with users of an e-commerce platform such as that supported by a system such as that described above.

FIG. 23 is an illustration of exemplary computer network 2300 in which a representative embodiment of the present disclosure may be practiced. The following discloses various example systems and methods for, by way of example and not limitation, e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, such as sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins. Referring now to FIG. 23, a processing device 20″, illustrated in the exemplary form of a mobile communication device, a processing device 20′, illustrated in the exemplary form of a computer system, and a processing device 20 illustrated in schematic form, are shown. Each of these devices 20, 20′, 20″ are provided with executable instructions to, for example, provide a means for a customer, e.g., a user, a customer or consumer, etc., or a sales associate, a customer service agent, and/or others to access a host system 68 and, among other things, be connected to a content management system, an electronic publication system, a hosted social networking site, a user profile, a store directory, and/or a sales associate. Generally, the computer executable instructions reside in program modules which may include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Accordingly, the processing devices 20, 20′, 20″ illustrated in FIG. 23 may be embodied in any device having the ability to execute instructions such as, by way of example, a personal computer, mainframe computer, personal-digital assistant (“FDA”), cellular telephone, tablet, e-reader, smart phone, or the like. Furthermore, while described and illustrated in the context of a single processing device 20, 20′, 20″, the various tasks described hereinafter may be practiced in a distributed environment having multiple processing devices linked via a local or wide-area network whereby the executable instructions may be associated with and/or executed by one or more of multiple processing devices.

For performing the various tasks in accordance with the executable instructions, the example processing device 20 includes a processing unit 22 and a system memory 24 which may be linked via a bus 26. Without limitation, the bus 26 may be a memory bus, a peripheral bus, and/or a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. As needed for any particular purpose, the system memory 24 may include read only memory (ROM) 28 and/or random access memory (RAM) 30. Additional memory devices may also be made accessible to the processing device 20 by means of, for example, a hard disk drive interface 32, a magnetic disk drive interface 34, and/or an optical disk drive interface 36. As will be understood, these devices, which would be linked to the system bus 26, respectively allow for reading from and writing to a hard disk 38, reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk 40, and for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk 42, such as a CD/DVD ROM or other optical media. The drive interfaces and their associated computer-readable media allow for the nonvolatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the processing device 20. Other types of non-transitory computer-readable media that can store data and/or instructions may be used for this same purpose. Examples of such media devices include, but are not limited to, magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital videodisks, Bernoulli cartridges, random access memories, nano-drives, memory sticks, and other read/write and/or read-only memories.

A number of program modules may be stored in one or more of the memory/media devices. For example, a basic input/output system (BIOS) 44, containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the processing device 20, such as during start-up, may be stored in ROM 28. Similarly, the RAM 30, hard drive 38, and/or peripheral memory devices may be used to store computer executable instructions comprising an operating system 46, one or more applications programs 48 (such as a Web browser), other program modules 50, and/or program data 52. Still further, computer-executable instructions may be downloaded to one or more of the computing devices as needed, for example via a network connection.

To allow a user to enter commands and information into the processing device 20, input devices such as a keyboard 54 and/or a pointing device 56 are provided. While not illustrated, other input devices may include a microphone, a joystick, a game pad, a scanner, a camera, touchpad, touch screen, etc. These and other input devices are typically connected to the processing unit 22 by means of an interface 58 which, in turn, is coupled to the bus 26. Input devices may be connected to the processor 22 using interfaces such as, for example, a parallel port, game port, FireWire, or a universal serial bus (USB). To view information from the processing device 20, a monitor 60 or other type of display device may also be connected to the bus 26 via an interface, such as a video adapter 62. In addition to the monitor 60, the processing device 20 may also include other peripheral output devices, not shown, such as, for example, speakers, cameras, printers, or other suitable device.

As noted, the processing device 20 may also utilize logical connections to one or more remote processing devices, such as the host system 68 having associated data repository 68A. In this regard, while the host system 68 has been illustrated in the exemplary form of a computer, the host system 68 may, like processing device 20, be any type of device having processing capabilities. Again, the host system 68 need not be implemented as a single device but may be implemented in a manner such that the tasks performed by the host system 68 are distributed amongst a plurality of processing devices/databases located at different geographical locations and linked through a communication network. Additionally, the host system 68 may have logical connections to other third party systems via a network 12, such as, for example, the Internet, LAN, MAN, WAN, cellular network, cloud network, enterprise network, virtual private network, wired and/or wireless network, or other suitable network, and via such connections, will be associated with data repositories that are associated with such other third party systems. Such third party systems may include, without limitation, systems of banking, credit, or other financial institutions, systems of third party providers of goods and/or services, systems of shipping/delivery companies, media content providers, document storage systems, etc.

For performing tasks as needed, the host system 68 may include many or all of the elements described above relative to the processing device 20. In addition, the host system 68 would generally include executable instructions for, among other things, identifying and recommending product items, coordinating storage and retrieval of documents; maintaining social network storage of a shopping list; receiving a location of a customer via a mobile device; maintaining maps and layouts of buildings and geographic areas; calculating directions or routes within buildings and geographic areas; searching, retrieving, and analyzing web-based content; managing operating rules and communication with user devices used by participants in a multiplayer consumer game, for receiving a request for a service call center connection from either a customer or a sales associate; routing a received request via a distributed mobile video call center; providing a service call infrastructure for providing the requestor with a distributed customer service experience, and for an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, such as sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins.

Communications between the processing device 20 and the host system 68 may be exchanged via a further processing device, such as a network router (not shown), that is responsible for network routing. Communications with the network router may be performed via a network interface component 73. Thus, within such a networked environment, e.g., the Internet, World Wide Web, LAN, cloud, or other like type of wired or wireless network, program modules depicted relative to the processing device 20, or portions thereof, may be stored in the non-transitory computer-readable memory storage device(s) of the host system 68 and processing devices 20, 20′ and 20″.

Aspects of the present disclosure may be seen in a method of operating an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions. Such a method may comprise, in a computer system configured to manage an e-commerce platform that communicatively couples to a respective communication device of each of a plurality of users, receiving, from a first party, a plurality of parameters defining operation of a promotional activity and user eligibility for participation in the promotional activity. The method may also comprise controlling review and approval of the plurality of parameters by a plurality of reviewers according to a particular sequence of approval of the plurality of parameters, to produce an approved plurality of parameters; and processing the approved plurality of parameters to deploy the promotional activity to the e-commerce platform to permit participation by eligible users of the plurality of users using their respective communication devices. The method may further comprise receiving information representing performance of the promotional activity, from the e-commerce platform; and processing the received information to produce a report of performance for transmission to the first party.

In a representative embodiment of the present disclosure, the promotional activity may be a sweepstakes. The plurality of parameters may comprise a geographic region, and users of the plurality of users residing within the geographic region may be eligible to participate in the promotional activity. The plurality of parameters may specify an action to be performed by the one of the plurality of users in order to qualify for participation in the promotional activity. The action to be performed by the one of the plurality of users may comprise sharing an opinion with one or more members of a social network running on the e-commerce platform. The plurality of parameters may specify a period during which the promotional activity is active. The e-commerce promotions platform may directs the e-commerce platform to repeat the promotional activity according to the plurality of parameters.

Additional aspects of the present disclosure may be observed in a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon, one or more code sections each comprising a plurality of instructions executable by at least one processor, the instructions for causing the at least one processor to perform actions of the method described above.

Further aspects of the present disclosure may be found in a system for use in an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, in which the system comprises at least one processor for communicatively coupling to respective communication devices of each of a plurality of users. In such a system, the at least one processor may be operable to at least perform the actions of the method described above.

Accordingly, aspects of the invention may be realized in hardware, software, firmware or a combination thereof. The invention may be realized in a centralized fashion in at least one computer system or in a distributed fashion where different elements are spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware, software and firmware may be a general-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein.

One embodiment of the present invention may be implemented as a board level product, as a single chip, application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or with varying levels integrated on a single chip with other portions of the system as separate components. The degree of integration of the system will primarily be determined by speed and cost considerations. Because of the sophisticated nature of modern processors, it is possible to utilize a commercially available processor, which may be implemented external to an ASIC implementation of the present system. Alternatively, if the processor is available as an ASIC core or logic block, then the commercially available processor may be implemented as part of an ASIC device with various functions implemented as firmware.

The present invention may also be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer system is able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the present context may mean, for example, any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: a) conversion to another language, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different material form. However, other meanings of computer program within the understanding of those skilled in the art are also contemplated by the present invention.

While the invention has been described with reference to certain embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted without departing from the scope of the present invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope. Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but that the present invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of operating an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, the method comprising: in a computer system configured to manage an e-commerce platform that communicatively couples to a respective communication device of each of a plurality of users, receiving, from a first party, a plurality of parameters defining operation of a promotional activity and user eligibility for participation in the promotional activity; controlling review and approval of the plurality of parameters by a plurality of reviewers according to a particular sequence of approval of the plurality of parameters, to produce an approved plurality of parameters; processing the approved plurality of parameters to deploy the promotional activity to the e-commerce platform to permit participation by eligible users of the plurality of users using their respective communication devices; receiving information representing performance of the promotional activity, from the e-commerce platform; and processing the received information to produce a report of performance for transmission to the first party.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the promotional activity is a sweepstakes.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters comprises a geographic region, and wherein users of the plurality of users residing within the geographic region are eligible to participate in the promotional activity.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters specifies an action to be performed by the one of the plurality of users in order to qualify for participation in the promotional activity.
 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the action to be performed by the one of the plurality of users comprises sharing an opinion with one or more members of a social network running on the e-commerce platform.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters specifies a period during which the promotional activity is active.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the e-commerce promotions platform directs the e-commerce platform to repeat the promotional activity according to the plurality of parameters.
 8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon, one or more code sections each comprising a plurality of instructions executable by at least one processor for causing the at least one processor to perform actions for operating an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, the actions comprising: receiving, from a first party, a plurality of parameters defining operation of a promotional activity and user eligibility for participation in the promotional activity; controlling review and approval of the plurality of parameters by a plurality of reviewers according to a particular sequence of approval of the plurality of parameters, to produce an approved plurality of parameters; processing the approved plurality of parameters to deploy the promotional activity to the e-commerce platform to permit participation by eligible users of the plurality of users using respective communication devices; receiving information representing performance of the promotional activity, from the e-commerce platform; and processing the received information to produce a report of performance for transmission to the first party.
 9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the promotional activity is a sweepstakes.
 10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of parameters comprises a geographic region, and wherein users of the plurality of users residing within the geographic region are eligible to participate in the promotional activity.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters specifies an action to be performed by the one of the plurality of users in order to qualify for participation in the promotional activity.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 11, wherein the action to be performed by the one of the plurality of users comprises sharing an opinion with one or more members of a social network running on the e-commerce platform.
 13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of parameters specifies a period during which the promotional activity is active.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the e-commerce promotions platform directs the e-commerce platform to repeat the promotional activity according to the plurality of parameters.
 15. A system for use in an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotions, the system comprising: at least one processor for communicatively coupling to respective communication devices of each of a plurality of users, the at least one processor operable to, at least: receive, from a first party, a plurality of parameters defining operation of a promotional activity and user eligibility for participation in the promotional activity; control review and approval of the plurality of parameters by a plurality of reviewers according to a particular sequence of approval of the plurality of parameters, to produce an approved plurality of parameters; process the approved plurality of parameters to deploy the promotional activity to the e-commerce platform to permit participation by eligible users of the plurality of users using their respective communication devices; receive information representing performance of the promotional activity, from the e-commerce platform; and process the received information to produce a report of performance for transmission to the first party.
 16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the promotional activity is a sweepstakes.
 17. The system according to claim 15, wherein the plurality of parameters comprises a geographic region, and wherein users of the plurality of users residing within the geographic region are eligible to participate in the promotional activity.
 18. The system according to claim 15, wherein the plurality of parameters specifies an action to be performed by the one of the plurality of users in order to qualify for participation in the promotional activity.
 19. The system according to claim 18, wherein the action to be performed by the one of the plurality of users comprises an action of sharing an opinion with one or more members of a social network running on the e-commerce platform.
 20. The system according to claim 15, wherein the plurality of parameters specifies a period during which the promotional activity is active.
 21. The system according to claim 15, wherein the e-commerce promotions platform directs the e-commerce platform to repeat the promotional activity according to the plurality of parameters. 